MiraCosta bio-manufacturing lab hits snag

OCEANSIDE -- MiraCosta College cannot afford to build a $1
million biomanufacturing facility on campus, forcing the school to
delay training students for careers at the new Biogen Idec
Pharmaceuticals facility under construction on Oceanside
Boulevard.

Ric Matthews, dean of math and science at MiraCosta, said the
college has raised only about $500,000 to renovate a 3,500-square
foot former machine shop on campus, turning it into two classrooms
where students can learn the specialized skills they will need to
succeed in the potentially lucrative biotech manufacturing
industry.

"We thought it was going to cost a half million dollars, but it
ended up costing a million," said Ric Matthews, dean of math and
sciences at MiraCosta.

Matthews said the college had planned to start its new
biomanufacturing curriculum when the spring semester started Jan.
19, but, without specialized classrooms, classes had to be delayed
until fall.

Matthews said he is confident that MiraCosta will be able to
raise enough money to renovate the building and hire a new faculty
member to teach the biomanufacturing classes in the fall.

"We are going to hold a capital fund raising campaign to raise
the money," he said, adding that the college will approach local
businesses and individuals asking for cash donations and building
materials.

Johannes Roeberg, Biogen Idec's senior director of engineering
and project leader for the Oceanside facility, said delaying
MiraCosta's biomanufacturing curriculum by one semester should not
adversely affect students' chances of landing a job at his
company's new $1.3 billion facility in the Ocean Ranch business
park. Roeberg said Biogen Idec will first relocate its existing
manufacturing work force from its old manufacturing facility in
Torrey Pines to the new Oceanside location and will not need a
large influx of new workers until 2005.

"We will phase the manufacturing folks in as we go," Roeberg
said.

MiraCosta and the pharmaceutical giant formed a partnership last
year to graduate 50 trained biomanufacturing workers annually.
Biogen Idec officials have said their Oceanside facility will
provide about 2,000 jobs, many of them in a 203,000-square-foot
manufacturing building where the company's medical products will be
made.

"These will be significant jobs, with significant wages -- more
than $30,000 for entry-level and opportunities for advancement,"
Matthews said.

It was not long ago that Biogen Idec was known simply as Idec
Pharmaceuticals. In June, 2003, Idec Pharmaceuticals Corp. entered
into a $6 billion merger with Biogen Inc. of Cambridge, Mass.

The company has provided $200,000 to pay the college's new
biomanufacturing teacher's salary for four years. Idec has also
worked with Matthews to create a biomanufacturing curriculum.
Various pharmaceutical companies have also donated high-tech
equipment for the new classrooms. That equipment makes up $400,000
of the $500,000 that MiraCosta has already raised toward its total
$1 million renovation cost.

Matthews said MiraCosta was simply too optimistic when it
calculated the cost of renovating the new classrooms.

"Once we got into the actual design, the cost estimates for the
project got a lot more expensive than we thought it was going to
be," Matthews said.

MiraCosta already offers one- and two-year biotech certificates
on campus. The biomanufacturing curriculum represents only an
additional seven credits as an addendum to the larger biotech
program and can be completed in one semester, Matthews said.